Senate bill takes aim at 'secret' online algorithms

A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Filter Bubble Transparency Act that would force large online platforms to be more transparent about how their algorithms find content to share. The bill would require companies that collect data from more than 1 million users and make more than $50 million per year to notify users that their platforms use algorithms to determine what information is shown and offer users the opportunity to opt-out of curated content. The senators cited Twitter, which allows users to either see all of the most recent tweets or a curated list of tweets picked for users. The bill would make it illegal to operate a large online platform using a "secret algorithm" to curate content if it meets the two requirements. The Federal Trade Commission would been given power to enforce the rule using civil penalties.

“This legislation is about transparency and consumer control,” said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune (R-SD). “For free markets to work as effectively and as efficiently as possible, consumers need as much information as possible, including a better understanding of how internet platforms use artificial intelligence and opaque algorithms to make inferences from the reams of personal data at their fingertips that can be used to affect behavior and influence outcomes.That’s why I believe consumers should have the option to either view a platform’s opaque algorithm-generated content or its filter bubble-free content, and, at the very least, they deserve to know how large-scale internet platforms are delivering information to their users.” “As we’ve seen over and over, consumers have limited understanding of how their data is being used and how platforms operate,” said Mark Warner (D-VA) said. “This bill helps reduce the power of opaque algorithms on our discourse and put greater control in the hands of consumers.” Sens Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also co-sponsored the bill.